KARACHI: Maulana Noorani was president of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal, the six religious parties’ alliance, and chief of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Pakistan. He was born in Meerut, India, on March 31, 1926, in a well-known family of religious scholars. His father, Maulana Shah Muhammad Abdul Aleem Siddiqui, was regarded as one of the leading Islamic scholars of his time and was considered heir to the seat of learning of Hazrat Shah Ahmad Raza Khan Barelvi.

Maulana Noorani graduated from the National Arabic College, Meerut, and obtained his Fazil degree in Arabic from Allahabad University and Dars-i-Nizam (Fazil) from Darul Uloom Arabia, Meerut. He was well-versed in over 12 languages, including Arabic, English, French and some of the dialects spoken in Africa, which he visited frequently as part of his duties as head of the World Islamic Mission.

Maulana Noorani was one of the founders of the Mission, which was established at Dar-ul-Arkam in Makkah in 1972. He was elected its president in 1974 at its London conference. From 1953 to 1964, he also remained secretary-general of the World Muslim Ulema Organization. He took an active part in the 1953 Khatm-i-Nabuwat movement.

He was elected for the first time as a member of parliament from Karachi in 1970 and was subsequently elected leader of the JUP parliamentary party. He became president of the party in 1973.

Maulana Noorani, who was respected by everyone for his integrity as a leader and for his moderate outlook, played an important role in the National Alliance movement launched after the 1977 general election against the Z.A. Bhutto government.

After the death of his father, Maulana Noorani undertook the responsibility of running the World Islamic Mission and often travelled to the Middle East, Africa and Europe. He also visited the US, Latin America and Canada and saw thousands of non-Muslims convert to Islam. He was responsible for the publication of Islamic literature in several languages.

As a member of the constitution committee of parliament, Maulana Noorani proposed more than 200 amendments and suggestions with a view to democratizing the 1972 constitution.

He was also elected chief of the Milli Yakjehti Council which was formed to unite various religious parties in Pakistan to turn them into a single unified political force. But it was not till the formation of the MMA that real unity was possible among these parties. In a Dawn dialogue interview, he was asked: “The MMA is a conglomerate of different political parties believing in different schools of jurisprudence. How have you kept them united and how long can you sustain the alliance on the basis of its present policy?”

To this question, his reply was: “We have differing jurisprudence. We decided that we should respect each other’s faith and practice Islam accordingly. If we can allow the minorities to live according to their faith, then why can’t we live together. Apney maslak ko chhoro mat, auron kay maslak to chhero mat. At the same time we are united on some basic issues such as fundamental rights, democracy, supremacy of Parliament, Islamic laws, justice, social justice. The Afghan factor was also there. Another factor that helped the MMA was the government propaganda against the PPP and PML-N, on the electronic media in particular.”

During the 1971 Bangladesh crisis, Maulana Noorani opposed military action and favoured transfer of power to the majority party, the Awami League. When he was invited for talks by Gen Yahya Khan to seek his support, he made it clear that the only solution to the deadlock was in political negotiations. However, when he saw the Indian government and Indian troops supporting the Mukti Bahini, he lent his backing to the military government.

In the ongoing crisis over the LFO, Maulana Noorani was of the view that “if the LFO is tagged on to the Constitution, the supremacy will be that of the LFO and not of parliament.”

As chief of the Yakjehti Council, Maulana Noorani led a “million men” march against the US threat of aggression against Iraq. “The war is being launched to block Islam from taking roots in Europe and America. It is aimed at poisoning the hearts and souls of Christians against Muslims whose number has increased in their homelands over the years,” the Maulana said.